NYT Movie Critic Warns of the Violence Inside Critics of 'Laudable' Gay Marriage

The wide alternative bill of fare for Manhattan moviegoers invites the paper's movie critics to flash their personal politics. Andy Webster does so in his take in Friday's Weekend section of a small independent release, the gay-themed thriller "Blackmail Boys." Although Webster ended up finding the movie loaded with too much "pornographic detail" to recommend, he planted his political flag on the "laudable quest" for gay marriage.

"Blackmail Boys" is basically about just that: a young gay couple and their ill-fated attempt to coerce a famous figure into paying them to keep his gay identity from view. Sam (Nathan Adloff), a part-time student in Chicago, has been turning tricks to make ends meet, but what he really wants is enough money to marry and go on a honeymoon with his live-in boyfriend, Aaron (Taylor Reed).

They target one of Sam's "mean-spirited clients," who is, conveniently, "a married Christian celebrity author publicly hell-bent on preventing gay teenagers from embracing their sexual orientation."

But "Blackmail Boys" is about more than extortion. Distributed by TLA Releasing - the outfit behind a passel of recent gay-theme movies ("Fruit Fly," "BearCity") - it's also about double lives, the violence that can lurk inside those who cannot face themselves and the laudable quest for gay marriage in the United States.

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